If you can take a close up picture of a leaf it would be helpful. There are quite a few of them with similar shapes
White bark and yellow fall color is not a unique combination among birches, as mentioned a much closer view(s) is needed.
Yes, silly me! I got so fascinated by the beauty of the trees that forgot to take pictures of the leaves for identification. Will be in Nelson in a week or two, there should still be leaves on the ground.
Don't forget to photo the twigs as well! Put one on the ground so the camera can't focus on the background (and leave the twig a blur!).
Could be either Betula jacquemontii or Betula papyrifera. Are the twigs pubescent, or glabrous and slightly warty?
The pictures of Betula jacquemontii on the Net fit better "my" tree. I am also inclined to believe that it is rather Betula jacquemontii because of its use in landscaping. But I will check the twigs next time when in Nelson. Thanks Michael F. What I can add right now is another picture, may be this could help, too.
Several white-barked species are used in North American landscaping. However, these look like paper birches to me. That is liable to be the most common one. Final judgement depends on fine details, as mentioned.
The twig looks glabrous and slightly warty. The catkins are 2.5 cm long now and the buds are 1 cm long.
Thank you, Michael. So it must be papyrifera. But the trees look much different from the common Birch trees growing everywhere around here, which I understand are Betula papyrifera (or are they?). I think I will have to submit the picture of those for identification, as well.
Two possibilities to investigate: 1 - your local trees "growing everywhere around here" could be a different species, perhaps naturalised Silver Birch B. pendula (listed as an invasive species in BC). 2 - your local trees are Paper Birch of local native stock, while these planted ones are imported from a different part of the species' range.
I had a closer look yesterday at the Birches growing in my area to find things more complicated than I expected. It looks like, judging by the twigs and leaves, there are at least three different kinds of Betulas growing around here, though the trees look very similar (they look very much like Betula papyrifera in Wikipedia). Only #3 looks slightly similar to the Nelson Birches, especially the twig and leaves look almost identical, I couldn't see catkins on them, though. Otherwise all trees are much taller and slimmer than the Birch in Nelson, the branching system looks different and the bark looks a little grayish, not that startling white. Their twigs are slightly warty and glabrous, couldn't see any catkins. What the experts think? What species are they? Must be something either native or invasive, since (unlike in Nelson) nobody planted them here.
Those mostly look like Paper Birch, but there's a couple I'm not sure on. I just saw a pic in a book showing a Paper Birch looking like your original query tree; it is in a park in eastern Canada. So that's a possible source for the original.
Thank You Michael. And thank you for your patience. I am thinking, may be pruning has something to do with the shape and height of the trees in Nelson.
